“One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast.”
– Robert A. Heinlein, Friday
Best muscle building breakfast
I used to eat a protein shake for breakfast every single morning. It didn’t taste that good and was kind of expensive to make. At the time I was earning $10 an hour at my retail job and spending $70 on tubs some silly supplement with “peak anabolic” in the name.
In other words, I was sacrificing seven hours of my time to afford powdered garbage that’s actual value was less than two dollars.
To put it bluntly, I was a fool.
Since then I’ve focused more on eating real food. Instead of a shake I’ll have a steak. Buying magic muscle powder has been replaced with eggs and yogurt.
Real food is a cheaper, and better, source of protein. The shakes that I used to drink had a fraction of the protein that my normal breakfasts do and they were more expensive.
Best muscle building breakfast under $5
Below is an actual picture of what I ate for breakfast. I had a quart of milk, three eggs, two packages of instant oatmeal, and three Italian sausages. The total cost of all this was less than five bucks.
Preparation is simple too. I fried up the eggs and cooked the sausage in the oven. You can make this meal in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza.
How much protein is in this?
Cooking time and price are great, but they mean nothing if you aren’t getting a lot of nutritional value.
A box of graham crackers is cheap, but it isn’t going to help you bulk up.
In order to determine how much protein I was getting, I had to do a little math:
- One cup of milk contains 8 grams of protein. I drank four cups.
- A three ounce sausage link contains about 16 grams of protein. I ate three links.
- One egg houses six grams of protein. I consumed three eggs.
That means that my total protein intake, for breakfast, was roughly 98 grams.
(8 x 4) + (16 x 3) + (6 x 3) = 98
When I used to buy powder I’d get about 50 grams of protein from two scoops. Since I mixed these with two cups of milk, I got about 66 grams of protein total. Not that much considering how much I was paying.
Where to find great deals on food
I live in Peru and we have a pretty decent selection of health food here. I got 15 organic eggs for less than $1.50 and a quart of milk for just over a dollar. Those sausages were two bucks for the whole package.
If you live in the United States finding deals like these is going to be difficult. However, it is doable.
Most grocery stores have cheap cuts of meat. National chains like Sam’s Club and Costco are great for stockpiling meatballs, mixed nuts, and ground beef. Local retailers frequently run discounts on perishable good like meat and milk. If I was back in the states I’d probably even use Amazon to buy 52 packages of instant oatmeal
Protein powder and supplements are way too expensive for what you’re getting. For less than $15 a day you can get almost 300 grams of protein by simply eating eggs and meat with a few glasses of milk. Coupled with a nice post-workout meal you’ll be getting more than enough food for less than $20.
Where I got my nutritional information:
Why Milk Is The Ultimate Post Workout Food